ASI

Dr. Merril Silverstein awarded $1.49 million from John Templeton Foundation

Silverstein,-Merrill

 

Dr. Merril Silverstein awarded $1.49 million from John Templeton Foundation, $401,072 from NIH to investigate outcomes of religious engagement in later life

The John Templeton Foundation awarded a $1.49 million grant to Merril Silverstein, Ph.D., the Marjorie Cantor Endowed Professor in Aging, for a three-year study entitled, “Religious Transitions, Transmissions, and Trajectories Among Baby-Boomers and their Families.” Additionally, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded Silverstein $401,072 for the project, “Religiosity and Mortality Risk in Later Life.” Jointly appointed in the Falk College’s School of Social Work and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs’ Department of Sociology, Silverstein is a faculty affiliate in the Syracuse University Aging Studies Institute.

Both projects focus on positive outcomes for older individuals, their families, and society related to religious engagement in later life. Given the rapidly growing older population and concerns about the viability of families as conduits for transmitting and preserving religious traditions, the research project provides much-needed data analysis on a major social issue confronting families today. The research projects, which involve collaborative subcontracts with the University of Southern California and California State University, Los Angeles, target Baby-Boomers and their families and explore whether religiosity changes following transition to retirement and entry into later life, is effectively transmitted across generations, and reduces mortality risk as it also responds to proximity to death.

A prolific scholar and researcher, Silverstein recently concluded service as editor-in-chief of Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. Earlier this year, he received the James Martin Fellowship from Oxford University in its Institute of Population Aging to support an upcoming residency in population aging. With active projects around the globe, including Sweden, the Netherlands, and Israel on topics of aging and intergenerational relations, Silverstein directs a longitudinal study of older adults in rural China entering its second decade. He currently serves as principal investigator of the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG), a long-term study of multigenerational families that began in 1971 that has continued to collect data up to 2005 and, now with the current project, up to 2016.

The Templeton Foundation and NIH-funded projects include data collection from 1,294 Baby-Boomer participants in the LSOG and 978 of their adult children.  As most of the Baby-Boomers in the sample have passed 65 years of age, it is a favorable time to examine their religiosity post retirement, a period that is theorized to signal a return to earlier practices and a reintroduction to previously joined religious communities. The project will also investigate whether contemporary changes in family life, such as divorce and step-family formation, alter intergenerational transmission of religiosity.  The National Death Index will provide detailed information about date and causes of death for the parents and grandparents of Baby-Boomers in the sample, the large majority of who are deceased, to examine the relationship between their earlier religious participation and mortality risk. Dr. Roseann Giarrusso Professor of Sociology at CSULA and Dr. Maria Brown, Assistant Research Professor at the SU Aging Studies Institute and the Falk College, will contribute to the quantitative component of this research project.

The project’s qualitative component is under the directorship of Vern Bengtson, Ph.D., faculty Research Professor with the School of Social Work’s Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging at the University of Southern California.  Interviews will be conducted with older adults who were first interviewed as part of Bengtson’s 2006-10 project supported by the Templeton Foundation to document the underlying processes by which religiosity and spirituality develop across generations in families.  Religious leaders and clergy from various faiths will also be interviewed to gain insight into their views on older congregants, as well as older congregants themselves.

Jennifer Karas Montez gives Capitol Hill Briefing

Incoming Maxwell faculty member Jennifer Karas Montez, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty Affiliate, Aging Studies Institute, Faculty Affiliate, Center for Policy Research, gave a briefing on Capitol Hill regarding the impact of Education on Mortality and Health. The congressional sponsor for the briefing was Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). The briefing was co-sponsored by the Association of Population Centers, the American Sociological Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Psychological Association, The Consortium of Social Science Associations, and the Population Reference Bureau.

Aging Family/Changing Family International Conference

Aging studies scholars from around the world convened at Syracuse University June 3-6 for the Aging Families/Changing Families International Conference hosted by the Aging Studies Institute and the International Sociological Association (ISA) Research Committees on Aging and Family. More than 120 attendees participated in the three-day event that included daily keynote speakers, 17 sessions and 78 presentations of original research focused on aging in the context of family life.

Click on the link to read the article.

http://news.syr.edu/aging-studies-institute-hosts-aging-familieschanging-families-international-conference-46912/

Eric Kingson awarded the 2015 Donald P. Kent Award

Eric R. Kingson, Ph.D. has been named the recipient of the 2015 Donald P. Kent Award. This award has been given annually since 1973, “to a member of The Gerontological Society of America who best exemplifies the highest standards for professional leadership in gerontology through teaching, service, and interpretation of gerontology to the larger society.”

Kingson joins the likes of Bob Binstock, Rob Hudson, Marjorie Cantor, Andrew Achenbaum and Carroll Estes as other notable individuals who have had the honor of receiving this award.

Maria Brown Awareness Award Recipient

Maria Brown has been awarded the Awareness Award from the LGBT Resource Center. The Awareness Award acknowledges an individual who demonstrates a commitment to continuous self-awareness and broad societal awareness. This awardee exhibits a level of personal and professional engagement and leadership in working with people with marginalized genders and sexualities.

The award was announced at the 13th Annual Rainbow Banquet, which took place on Thursday April 23rd at the Regency Ballroom of the Syracuse University Sheraton Hotel.

Congratulations to Alejandro Garcia

Professor Alejandro Garcia recently received recognition for his outstanding service as Vice Chair/Secretary of the Council on Social Work Education, the accrediting association for baccalaureate and master’s degree social work programs in the United States.

Alejandro award

Dr. Garcia is pictured above with Dr. Carmen Ortiz Hendricks, the Dean of the Yeshiva School of Social Work and a CSWE board member, and Barbara Shank, the chair of the board of directors.